SALEM — Both sides rested their cases and the jury began deliberations Wednesday in the trial of former Salem Housing Authority (SHA) Executive Director Isaac A. Young.

He faces charges of releasing a confidential New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) documents, hindering his own apprehension and false swearing. After the state called its final three witnesses, Young was not called to the stand and the lawyers representing both sides gave their final arguments in the case.

In his closing, Young's attorney, Ronald Thompson, told the jury that it was up to the state to prove Young's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but none of the evidence the state provided could be directly attributed to Young.

The DYFS documents were mailed to various residents of Salem City around the Primary Election held in June 2012. One of the state's witnesses — former Salem City Police Sgt. Leon Daniels — testified last week that Young called him into his office at the housing authority, gave him copies of the documents, as well as envelopes, stamps and a registered voter list that included addresses and instructed him to mail out letters to several names that were underlined on the list.

However, Thompson said that there was no evidence available to independently connect any of the letters directly to Young.

Thompson also argued that Daniels' testimony should be considered not credible because he testified that he did not remember discussing the possibility of losing his pension if he did not cooperate with the investigation.

He said the notion that Young would call Daniels, a police officer, to mail the letters was strange.

"Who would call on a sworn police officer in order to do something wrong," Thompson asked.

In his closing, Salem County First Assistant Prosecutor Bill Brennan said that the state's best witness wasn't Daniels, it was Young.

"Isaac Young said he copied the document and gave them out to people in office and to Daniels," he said. Brennan also pointed out several inconsistencies between the two statements Young gave to investigators and his testimony in the original trial held in May.

In his second statement, Young said he gave the document to Daniels along with the envelopes, stamps and voter list.

When he testified in May, Young said he didn't give that information to detectives during his first statement because when they asked if he provided anyone with the documents, he didn't know they meant police officers, too.

After Superior Court Judge Timothy Farrell explained the process of considering the evidence and determining if the state was able to provide proof for each of the charges filed against Young, the jury left to begin their deliberations.

With no verdict returned at the end of the day, they will return to Superior Court on Thursday to continue deliberations.

Young also faces a a charge of official misconduct for allegedly instructing SHA employees to do work at rental properties he owned in the city. That charge will be handled in a separate trial.